BOOKS
The Instruction Manual for Receiving God
By Jason Shulman
(Sounds True)
If you’re looking for a practical guide to broadening your perspective on the human experience and deepening your faith in a higher power, Zen Buddhist author Jason Shulman’s The Instructional Manual for Receiving God is a worthwhile read. For seekers aligned with virtually any spiritual path, Shulman offers practical steps to interpreting the experience of God. According to Shulman, learning how to receive God should not be the inherent province of organized religion. In fact, as he writes, “It should even make you a better agnostic or atheist, because it is about fulfilling our complete human potential.” Conventional lessons in dogma are often mystifying and intangible, but Shulman’s clean, clear prose and easy-to-swallow short passage format cuts through the confusion to reveal the commonalities of our shared experience. —Caroline Casper
Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America’s Conservative Revolution
By Brian Mann
(Steerforth Press)
The morning after the 2004 election, voters in cities across the nation awoke asking “What the &*@# happened?” As analysis of regional voter patterns in the coming weeks revealed, one thing that happened was that 87 percent of rural districts voted Republican. In Welcome to the Homeland, NPR reporter Brian Mann argues that the pendulum swing was not the result of country folk (whom he dubs “homelanders”) getting duped by wedge issues conservative politicians dreamed up, as suggested in the 2005 bestseller What’s the Matter with Kansas? Rather, Mann attributes the Democrats’ failure to a misunderstanding of, and even disdain for, “America’s most powerful minority”—50 million white, rural conservatives. Who are these rural voters, and why did they vote so adamantly right wing? Himself a progressive small-towner, Mann sets out to answer these questions by traveling to the heartland, including his Creationist brother’s Missouri home. There, Mann finds homelanders to be an intelligent and politically savvy bunch, well worthy of respect. When homelanders don’t vote “their pocketbook,” Mann concludes, it’s not because they’re hoodwinked by Karl Rove, but rather because they’re voting with their cultural values backed up against the wall. He points out, for example, that many of them feel as passionately about the abortion issue as ’60s left-wingers did about the war in Vietnam. Welcome to the Homeland is an insightful and surprisingly readable exploration of the urban vs. rural schism in the American political landscape. Mann’s theories on how the &*@# we got here, and why, are a fascinating read.
—Monica Woelfel
MUSIC
Bela Lakatos and the Gypsy Youth Project
Introducing Bela Lakatos and the Gypsy Youth Project
(World Music Network)
Gypsies have always lived a dual existence. As the stuff of legends, they’re dark-eyed beauties, free-hearted roamers, people for whom the very word “home” feels constricting. And then there’s the less romantic reality—centuries of poverty, hardship and discrimination. It turns out that Gypsies have two distinct musical traditions as well: the tunes they play for tourists and the music they play for each other. Countless albums capturing that tourist sound exist, but Bela Lakatos’ Gypsy Youth Project stands out as one of the few (and best) recordings of music created for and by Gypsy folk from rural Hungary.
Lakatos spares us the manic fiddling; the voice—or rather, voices—own this music, with up to five singers finding precise, close harmonies without losing the impromptu, swinging joie de vivre that makes it all work. And while the singing skews toward the sublime, the instrumentation stays earth-bound; sticks, whistling and foot stomping dominate, and two musicians are even credited with playing a metal can. The combination makes for an enthralling listen—15 seconds into the exhilarating opening track and you’re hooked. The lyrics, by turns heartbreaking, violent and sweet, simply ice the cake, while several slower laments and touches of mandolin complete what is destined to be one of the best world music releases of 2006. —Sarah Bardeen
Kabbalah Kirtan
Yofiyah
(Sounds True)
Spurred by attention from Madonna and Britney, the ancient Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah has enjoyed a brief resurgence, complete with “Kabbalah accessories” flooding the pages of celeb gossip rags. Undoubtedly the singer and vocal teacher Yofiyah, aka Susan Deikman, studied Kabbalah well before those Janie-come-latelies, but in some ways, her take may be just as untraditional as those of Kabbalah’s celebrity adherents. Drawing from Hindu and Sikh traditions, Deikman borrows kirtan—or devotional chanting—and transforms it for Kabbalah practitioners. For the most part, the hybrid works. Deikman chooses her texts well, culling mystical and often romantic Hebrew-language chants from ancient scripture like the Book of Genesis and the Song of Songs (which provides the heart-stopping lyricism gracing both “Dodi Li” and “Yishakeni”). Instrumentally, Deikman trots the globe, underscoring her chants with everything from oud, sarangi and harmonium to electric guitar and bass. While traditional kirtan can be stark and haunting, Kabbalah Kirtan may not transport you: Deikman’s voice, though certainly pleasant, lacks the subtle shading of a classically trained Indian singer. But mantra is certainly one route to the divine, and if Kabbalah is your thing, this chant-along CD might just fit the bill. —Sarah Bardeen
Visit kabbalahkirtan.com for a copy.
Ape to Angel
Pitch Black [nz]
(Waveform Records, waveformhq.com)
From New Zealand comes a grooved-out duo that really works the knobs in constructing their killer dub-based music. The epitome of the hybrid style that trance, dub, chillout and downtempo has birthed, Ape to Angel is also one of the strongest CDs in many moons. Pitch Black [nz] is Michael Hodgson and Paddy Free, two longtime sound manipulation artists known for creating musical journeys from organic ambient beginnings and layered soundscapes, to skanking keyboards, cutting acid riffs and thumping rhythmic grooves, with dub as the glue holding it all together. The album was originally released to critical acclaim on the KOG record label in New Zealand, followed closely by a world tour with 42 shows across the world, including an electrifying debut performance in the US. As their debut American release on Waveform Records, the disc has been repackaged with an added bonus track and eye-popping video of the focus track, “Lost in Translation.” Pitch Black [nz] are also multimedia aces, and every gig they play is live, with fully integrated visuals running in real time. Their production skills have lead to collaborations with numerous international artists and won them the job of scoring portions of the stunning Kiwi film The Whale Rider. They have also released three earlier imports, including re-mixes galore and a two-CD set called Futureproof. —Lloyde Barde
FILM/DVD
Hurricane on the Bayou
Produced by MacGillivray
A 14-year-old fiddle prodigy and three legendary musicians are on a mission to spread the word: due to the levees engineers built a century ago to prevent crucial sediment from feeding the deltas, New Orleans’ wetlands are eroding at a rate of one acre every half hour. Pre-Katrina, IMAX had planned to follow these three New Orleans residents in a film warning viewers what could happen if the wetlands weren’t restored. But when producers realized a 200-mile wide, category-5 hurricane was actually heading their way, their “what if” tale suddenly turned devastatingly real. IMAX soon had Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in America’s history, on camera.
Narrated by Meryl Streep and staying true to IMAX’s reputation for breathtaking photography, Hurricane on the Bayou gives a beautiful and poignant portrayal of New Orleans’ culture, complete with jazz, pet alligators and mouthwatering Cajun eats. Weaving the musicians’ stories and music throughout heart-stopping and heartbreaking on-the-ground coverage of the storm, the film encourages environmental stewardship by pushing for wetlands restoration through soil-retaining vegetation, stone walls and sand. But despite the tone of hope and recovery, if IMAX ever starts filming my town, I’m packing my bags and leaving. —Jenny Rough
Hurricane on the Bayou is currently screening in LA at the IMAX theater at the California Science Center, where it runs through January. Proceeds from the CD accompanying the film’s release will be dedicated to the Audubon Nature Institute. Visit HurricaneOnTheBayou.com.